Friday, August 24, 2012

LANCE & An Open Letter to Travis Tygart

I almost never post on current events. But I will here.

By saying "screw you guys, Im going home" Lance has done the right thing. He has decided not to spend millions to defend. In return, he has saved the taxpayers millions in prosecution expenses. But thats not the reason he is not fighting.

He's tired of it. The referee's here suck so he's taking his football and going home.

If he spent the time and money here, and won, who's to say some other agency wont try it again, and again. Every agency of this kind want to be the one to nail Lance. Lance chooses not to fight a one sided battle. So the USADA will find him guilty. By default. Lets look at what this means to him....

First off, he will be suspended from competing in a sport he is retired from. What a bummer. Then, the USADA will strip him from his tour wins. Awards given him by the UCI, in a different county. Really?

Here,s the next argument that coming. USADA says Lance must turn in his yellow jerseys. UCI says nope, he can keep em' since we never caught him doping over here in France. And round and round we go. Again. So now Travis can go after the UCI. Have at it.

Lance has grown weary of this issue and when the USADA lays their weak "guilty" verdict on him he can move on and spend time with his family and foundation. This will all blow up big now. But will go away in time and Lance hopes he can live out the rest of his years in peace.

Unlike two riders that blew the whistle, I believe you will not see a book from Lance trying to make some money on this.

ON OPEN LETTER TO TRAVIS TYGART

Dear Travis,

Congrats on the win. Im sure your hard work makes this victory worth the time spent. However, your work is not done. Your case against Mr Armstrong had you falling on the open testimony of many riders, some of who is still competing today. Since Mr Armstrong has opted not to fight you must have quite the cashe of funds available to start prosecution of each and every one of those riders. Several of those riders are, like Mr Armstrong, retired. I assume you will be going back to year 1998 with all those riders and doing the same. Looks like you have quite the job security. I look forward to seeing who is next. Because, in fact, it would be wrong to hold Mr Armstrong guilty and those who admitting to doing it with him not guilty. There should be no double standard here. Lots to do. Better get with it.

Keep up the good work,

Dano

Do I want the USADA to do this? Of course not. The point here is that Lance was a golden egg and the reward to nail him was high. To do the same to another rider just does not have the "bang" that our taxpayer dollars deserve. In fact, when all at the ASADA stop high five'ing each other they will look around and see no one really cares. With the exception of Landis, Hamilton, Andreau and a few more.

Nothing good for the sport will come of all this. But, like all things will go away in time. And I for one am glad its said and done. Regardless of the fallout for Lance it is over and done with.

Personally, At this point I could care less if he did or didn't. I am not defending him. All I hear about is no positive tests.

And thats good enough for me. And I move on to watching Jens Voight nailing a 60+ mile solo break. And I do so not even giving any of this a thought while he's doing it.

Lance is probably the biggest sports cheater in history. Together with his corrupt friends at the UCI he almost killed a beautiful sport. Luckily his 7 cheated wins are removed now. Once and forever. A great athlete, but unfortunately a big liar and bully.

So Lance, if you have nothing to hide, if you sleep well, if you have never doped, if all those accusations are ridicolous, why don't you fight? You, one of the most impressive fighters of all fighters? Everybody with a brain knows why. 1+1 it's that easy.

"It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled."

First, his wins as of today are not taken away. Thats up to the UCI to do. Im not saying he never doped. Im saying the way this is being handled, 7 years later, is wrong. Now USADA must turn its evidence over to UCI to get the tours erased. If Lance was the biggest cheat in sports, he still is the biggest cheat that never got caught. Lets see what UCI does with this......

The USADA weren't the ones to originally take up the fight. Based on accusations from Landis, the US Government (FDA) Jeff Novitsky were the ones who originally opened the investigation. The investigation was due to the fact Armstrong and Team were sponsored by the USPS (US Government) for about $40M over 4 years. So if doping was going on and government funds were being used to obtain illegal drugs, then there were potential federal criminal charges. Unlike prior investigations, this one was a FEDERAL investigation. If you lied under oath, you're going to jail. So when ex teammates were called under grand jury to testify, they could not lie. The US Government (FDA) did not find enough hard evidence to convict Lance in a criminal federal case but they sure as hell had enough to clean house. So what did they do? They gave it to the USADA (funded by the taxpayers) and told them take up the fight. Unlike a criminal case, the USADA did not have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to get a guilty verdict due to the WADA code. Had the FDA not opened the original federal criminal case and gathered all of the evidence under the grand jury, the USADA would never have had enough evidence to charge Lance with jaywalking. I'm sure the USADA understands the hypocricy in charging Lance but not others, but they really didn't have a choice in the matter. The USADA is funded by (but not a part of) the US Government and since the US Government found a lot of evidence, they wanted a head on a stick. They got it. The USADA is not the bad guy here - they didn't go looking for this fight but they saw it through because they were told by their masters.

But more importantly, check this link out. Who owns the USAC? Lance's business partner.....really? No, that can't be. That would be unethical......wouldn't it?http://dimspace.co.uk/la/ArmstrongBusinessConnections1707.pdf

Im sure you are right. But with the FDA unable to convict then give it to another who can? USADA, while playing with different rules, also has less authority. To the point where Lance could care less what they do to him. I believe he will retain his tour wins. I could be wrong.Again, not defending him. Just saying to little too late here.Thats all.

The stance of yourself and many others perpetuates the doping regime. It is because of fans like yourself - refusing to question and challenge - that cycling was in the fetid nether regions for so long. The only way to ensure cycling regains it's reputation is to ensure that these scandals are not swept under the carpet. Of course it's impractical to go after every cyclist, but it's right to go after the most succesful who have most benfitted from the sport.

I would have more sympathy for Armstrong's 'witch-hunt' position if indeed it was the case but it's not. This is the FIRST time that an anti-drugs authority has started proceedings against him. And at the first time of asking he holds up the white towel.

And please don't get confused by the federal investigation - that was specifially about fraud, which required a number of evidential proofs other than just proof about doping.

Dan, a very sad thing to read. Most Americans do not want their children poisoned by drugs to play sports. Lance Armstrong was not like other riders who just took drugs. He not only took drugs, but he trafficked in drugs across international borders, he forced younger riders to take lethal drugs, and he created a huge conspiracy to protect his lies.

You may be a nice guy who just happens to think that the American legal system should work for criminals and not for justice, but you should also think about the image you are upholding to the next generation. Perhaps you are a guy like Lance Armstrong who likes to get in trouble and then show the world the finger when you are caught, but don't suggest this for America's children. Cheating is not winning. Drugging up your body with PEDs is not being an athlete.

Jet, if you gave to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, oops, LiveStrong, then you know who you gave to. Not a dime went to cancer research. Millions went to DC PR people and lobbyists to whitewash Lance's name and promote cancer in sports by trying to shut down the USADA. Jet, your money paid for your brainwashing. Think about it. How sad.

Im Back!

I've been blogging for well over 15 years now. Having closed my bike store there just comes a time to purge and start new. Being on Wordpress for years I wanted to switch formats and I went back to Google's Blogger (its free). I was surprised to see all my old activity before I switched to Wordpress still here! So I just touched the old site up a bit and here I am. With cool pic's and trail reviews as I will fill my new found time with trying to hit up as many Wisco trails as I can.... Add your email below and get my posts sent to your inbox!